Quotes
Feeling Good
6 memorable lines from Feeling Good by David D. Burns, each with the idea behind it.
“How you feel is not determined by what happens to you — it's determined by what you tell yourself about what happens.”
Burns' restatement of the Stoic/Elliot overlap: the cognitive distortion is always in the middle, between event and feeling.
“Depression is not a reaction to real loss — it's a reaction to distorted loss.”
Burns' clinical framing: much of what depressed people experience as 'realistic despair' is actually cognitive distortion masquerading as objectivity.
“All-or-nothing thinking is the nutritionist of despair — it makes everything more fattening than it actually is.”
One of Burns' most memorable formulations: black-and-white thinking makes every setback more devastating than it is.
“The fastest way out of a bad mood is to act your way into a new way of thinking.”
Counterintuitive but consistent with the behavioral activation literature: action precedes mood change, not the other way around.
“Your thoughts are not facts.”
The foundational skill of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: developing the ability to observe your thoughts as mental events rather than accurate reflections of reality.
“Perfectionism is a form of self-harm dressed up as virtue.”
Burns is unsparing: perfectionism isn't high standards, it's a defense mechanism against the terror of being seen as imperfect.